Apparatus for capping a plurality of needles attached to syringes



Feb. 11, 1969 .1. B. LAGSDIN 3,426,411

APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES ATTACHED TO SYRINGES FiledFeb. 10. 1967 Sheet 0f 6 INVENTOR. JUL IUS BERNARD LAGSD/N ATTORNEY Feb.11, 1969 J. B. LAGSDIN APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLESATTACHED TO SYRINGES Filed Feb. 10, 1967 Sheetof 6 INQVENTOR. JUL/USBERNARD mesa/1v '1 v BY ATTORNEY Feb. 11. 1969 J, B, s N 3,426,411

APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES ATTACHED TO SYRINGES FiledFeb. 10, 1967 Sheet 3 of 6 INVENTOR. JUL/US BERNARD LAGSDl/V Feb. 1,1, 1969 7 Q J B. LAGSDIN 3,426,411

APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES ATTACHED TO SYRINGES FiledFeb. 10, 1967 Sheet of 6 INVENTOR. JUL/US BERNARD LAGSD/N d BY ATTORNEYFeb. 11, .1969 J. B. LAGSDIN 3,426,411

APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES ATTACHED TO SYRINGES FiledFeb. 10, 1967 v Sheet 5 0f 6 INVENTOR. JUL #15 BERNARD LAGSDl/V ATTORNEYFeb. 11, 1969 J. B. LAGSDIN 3,426,411

APPARATUS FOR CAPPING A PLURALITY OF NEEDLES ATTACHED TO SYRINGES FiledFeb. 10. 1967 Y Sheet 6 of e INVENTOR. JUL/US BERNARD LAGSD/N BY 744:,/%W' ATTORNfY United States Patent 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Amachine is described in which a tray of syringes with the needle ends upare capped. A grooved aligning bar is pivoted so that it can be swungdown and notches in the bar fit over the syringe barrels and hold themin alignment by spring pressure. The machine is provided with a secondbar, which is stationary and in which are mounted a series of smallfunnels, their ends being aligned with, and just above, the needles onthe syringes. Above the bar carrying the funnels is a second bar whichcan be swung back or forward and which is provided with a series of rodsaligned with the mouths of the funnels. Means are also provided,preferably pneumatic, for raising and lowering this bar in its forwardposition.

In operation the grooved aligning bar is swung up, and the bar carryingthe rods is swung back in its framework out of line with the mouths ofthe funnels. The operator then places a tray with a number of syringeswith their needles up. The grooved aligning bar is swung down and gripsthe barrels of the syringes, holding them firmly against sidewaysmovement and keeping the syringes in accurate alignment. The operatorthen places soft caps in each funnel, open end down, and they drop ontothe respective needles of the syringes below them.

The framework carrying the bar with rods is then swung forward over themouths of the funnels and is lowered, for example pneumatically. Thisforces the rods to move down in the tunnels and pushes the caps onto thesyringe needles a predetermined distance. The funnels assure that thecaps move down straight over the ends of the needles. After the tray ofneedles has been capped, the rod containing bar is lifted and swungback, and th aligning bar is raised. The tray of capped syringes is thenremoved, a fresh tray of syringes inserted, and the operation repeated.

Background of the invention Syringes for hypodermic are provided withvery sharp needles to assure painless injections and the needles areprotected from contamination. In the past protective caps of softmaterial, such as rubber or soft plastic, were applied individually andmanually to the syringe needles. This procedure was both slow andsometimes not accurate. If a cap was forced too far down on the needle,it could be punctured by the sharp needle point; and if it was notaccurately aligned along the point, puncture of side walls became apossibility, and in some cases the needle could also be bent. Theoperation was relatively slow, and the number of defective cappedsyringes considerable, particularly when the operator became tired atthe end of a day. Both of these factors increased cost of production,and if precise inspection is included to detect imperfectly cappedsyringes which the operator might not notice, this constituted a furthercost.

The necessiy for placing the caps on the needles with uniform pressureand to a uniform length, and particularly the difiiculties of assuringabsolute alignment so a cap is always pressed down in a straight linewith the axis of the needles, made mechanized capping economically3,426,41 l Patented Feb. 11, 1969 impractical in the past, and so manualoperation is still standard in spite of the higher cost factorsinvolved.

Summary of the invention According to the present invention the problemsset forth above are solved by providing automatic and perfect alignmentof the syringes with needles up, automatic alignment of the caps whenplaced on the ends of the needles, and an application of force to seatthe caps which does not depend on a precise amount of pressure but iscontrolled by means which move the caps down on the needles a certaindistance regardless of the force used to apply them. In other words,seating of the caps does not depend on accurately applied force orpressure, and the possibility of puncturing caps when too much force isused is completely eliminated.

The invention also permits capping a large number of syringes at onetime with complete uniformity and also prevents misalignment of the capsand bending of the needles by the exertion of force which is not in astraight line along the length of each needle.

According to the invention, a machine is provided in which a tray ofsyringes, with the needles up, can be inserted undereath a series ofaccurately aligned, small funnels, the mouths of which are closely abovethe ends of the needles. Caps, open end down, are fed into the mouths ofthe funnels, either manually or by automatic feeders, and dropped ontothe needles by gravity. The funnels assure that the caps move straightdown on each needle, and when the caps are then seated, there is nopossibility of bending a needle by pressure which is not straight alongthe length of each needle. At the same time the use of gravity placesthe caps very gently on the ends of the needles and there is nopossibility of injury by use of excessive force.

There is also provided a grooved locking bar or other means which can beswung down after the tray of syringes has been inserted, so that eachsyringe barrel is grasped firmly and held in perfect alignment under itsfunnel. When all of the caps have been dropped onto the needles, a barhaving rods of suitable diameter for the size of the narrow portions ofthe funnels is swung into position above the funnels and accuratelyaligned therewith and is then lowered onto the funnels a predetermineddistance. The rods moving down the funnels move the caps on each needlea precise, predetermined distance. Movement of the bar with the rods canbe effected manually, but is preferably operated by a suitable pneumaticmeans, such as a double acting air cylinder.

It will be noted that the combintion holds the syringes with theirneedles in accurate alignment, drops the caps onto the needle ends, alsoin accurate alignment, and gently, by the action of gravity, and thatthe caps are forced onto the needles a predetermined distance. Thiscompletely eliminates any adjustment or control of force used, becauseif the rods move down the predetermined distance it makes no differencewhether the force actuating is large or small. Stops are, of course,provided so that the bar can move an accurately predetermined distananceregardless of the force used in moving it.

It will be seen that the present invention provides a much more rapidcapping because a large number of syringes are capped at the same timeand completely eliminates defective capped cylinders in which the cap iseither applied too loosely or too strongly, with rupture of the cap orbending of the needle, and the operation does not require any control ofpressure by the operator at all. Thus if an operator is tired, thecontrol of the capping is just as accurate, because it is only necessaryto move the bar with the rods its predetermined full distance. Much morerapid capping results, with perfectly capped syringes in every case.

It should be noted that even if a cap is not inserted in one of thefunnels the syringe under it is not damaged. The movement of the rodcorresponding to the particular syringe automatically stops short ofhitting the end of the needle, for of course it always stops a distancefrom the point, which is at least the thickness of the cap. Therefore,in such cases the needle and syringe are not damaged and can be placedin another tray, which still further reduces the possibility ofdefective syringes and so eliminates their cost.

Ordinarily the machines of the present invention will be used forsyringes of a fixed size. However, the bars containing the funnels,which mount directly in the machine, and the one containing the rods,which is in a movable framework, can be made easily replaceable orremovable so that a machine may be used with different sizes ofsyringes. Of course the aligning bar with grooves for the cylinderbarrel must also be changed to accommodate the different barrel sizes ofanother size of syringe. The possibility of providing simply andeconomically for removable bars represents an additional practicaladvantage, although the invention of course can be used with machines inwhich the bars are fixed where only one size of syringe is to be cappedduring the life of the machine.

The machine is rugged and cannot easily be thrown Brief description ofthe drawing FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the front of the machine withthe aligning bars and rod holding bars swung up and back respectively;

FIG. 2 is a similar view with the aligning bar swung down and clamping aseries of syringe barrels;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view showing the rod bar swung forward;

FIG. 4 shows the rod bar of FIG. 3 pneumatically moved down to itslowest position;

FIG. 5 is a detailed end elevation of the machine;

FIG. 6 is a vertical section through FIG. 3 along the line 66;

FIG. 7 is a detailed section of a funnel and rod in the position showntoward the right of FIG. 2, and

FIG. 8 is a similar detailed section through the same elements as shownin FIG. 4.

Description of the preferred embodiment In FIG. 1 the machine base andframework is shown at 1 with a tray of syringes, needle ends up,inserted in the machine. The tray is shown at 2 generally with theindividual syringes at 23 with needles 20. A notched locking or aligningbar 3 is shown swung up by its handles 4. FIG. 5 shows the mechanism bywhich this bar is swung up and down, the figure showing the bar in fulllines in the lowered position and in dashed lines in the raised positioncorresponding to FIG. 1. The bar is journalled in arms 5 at each end ofthe machine which are pivoted on the pivots 6 and provided with springs7 which lock the bar in either position under spring pressure, resultingin a type of toggle action.

Alignment of the trays of syringes when introduced in the position ofFIG. 1 is automatically provided by the fact that the tray is pushed inuntil it hits an abutment or stop 25 which is shown in FIG. 6. It willbe noted that this figure is a section taken through FIG. 3 rather thanFIG. 1. The abutment also shows in FIG. 5 but is more clearlyillustrated in FIG. 6 and, of course, the tray with the syringes isaligned in contact with this stop when first inserted as shown in FIG. 1and it remains in contact therewith in the position shown in FIG. 3which will be described further below.

FIG. 2 shows the apparatus with the aligning bar 3 swung into its bottomposition, which is shown in full lines in FIG. 5, the notches graspingthe barrels of the syringes. FIG. 2 shows a bar rigidly attached to thebasic framework 1 of the machine. This bar has a series of transparentplastic funnels 13 which are accurately aligned over each syringe needle20. The operator now places caps 15, open end down, in each funnel. FIG.2 shows this operation partly completed, the caps on the syringes to theright of the figure having fallen down onto their respective needles,whereas at the left there are some funnels and needles in which no caphas been placed. The funnel just to the left of the last one over acapped needle shows the cap part way down in the needle. In other words,it shows the cap moving down but not yet fully on the needle. Of course,for clarity the operators hands are not shown as they would confuse thedrawing.

It will be noted that this is the only point requiring any seriousattention to accuracy on the part of the operator, and even here allthat the operator has to worry about is that the caps are always placedin the funnel open end down. This requires much less concentration thandetermining whether a cap is being pushed onto a needle with the sameforce, as was necessary in the prior art.

Because of the rapidity with which the funnels can be filled manuallywith caps, it is ordinarily not necessary to provide automatic feeding,but where still greater production is of importance, automatic feedingof conventional design may be used.

FIG. 3 shows a bar 8 which carries rods 9 swung forward over thefunnels. This bar is mounted in a tilting framework 1 pivoted about apivot 12, which is shown in FIG. 5 in two positions, dashed linescorresponding to FIGS. 1 and 2 and full lines in the positioncorresponding to FIGS. 3 and 4. The framework 11 carries two longaligning bearings 10 in which rods 16, which are screwed in the bar 8,can slide. This permits the bar 8 to slide up and down, but it ismaintained in precise alignment with respect to the framework 11. Whenthis framework is thrown to the forward position shown in FIG. 3, therods 9 are directly over the funnels and are parallel to thecorresponding syringe needles.

The operator then actuates a pneumatic controller which applies airpressure through fitting 18 to a double acting cylinder 17, and thiscauses a rod 24 to move down. As this rod is rigidly fastened to the bar8 it moves the bar down, as is shown in FIG. 4, but the bar remainsaligned by reason of its guide rods 16. The rods 9 move down through thefunnels and push the caps onto the needles to a predetermined position,which is determined by the point on the framework 1 where the bar 8strikes in its bottom position. This rod position is slightly above theends of the needles so that regardless of the air pressure the rods 9will never move too far and cause a cap to be punctured by its needle.All of the caps are seated firmly on the needles in one operation, andbecause the rods stop a small distance above the ends of the needles, aneedle would not be damaged even if the operator forgot to put a cap ina particular funnel.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are enlarged detailed sections of a funnel, rod, cap andsyringe. FIG. 7 shows the position in which the bar 8 has been swunginto its forward position with the rods 9 centered over the funnels 13.This also appears in full lines in FIG. 5 and in FIG. 6, and correspondsto the position generally shown in FIG. 3.

It will be seen that there is a slot 26 cut in the-bar 13 to permit therods 9 to move forward into the position thrown, this slot also can beseen in a portion of FIG. 3 which is broken away in section and, ofcourse, also is represented in FIG. 6 which is essentially similar toFIG.

7, although not on so greatly enlarged scale. It will be noted that theend of each rod 9 is hollowed out to form a hemispherical depression 27which shows in the broken away portion of the single rod in FIGS. 7 and8. This aids in preventing any sideways slippage of the cap 15 when therod 9 descends.

In FIG. 8 the bar 8 is shown in its descended position with the rod 9having forced the cap 15 onto its syringe. This position of the bar 8 ofcourse corresponds to FIG. 4.

After capping, the operator throws the pneumatic control and compressedair is caused to flow through the fitting 19, causing the double actingcylinder 17 to move up the bar 8 to a position which corresponds to FIG.3. The framework 11 is then swung back to the position shown in dashedlines in FIG. 5, and the locking bar 3 is swung up to the position alsoshown in dashed lines on FIG. 5. The operator then removes the tray ofcapped syringes and inserts a fresh tray and the operations are thenrepeated.

Manual movement of the bar 3 and the framework 11 to predeterminedpositions is simple, requires no skill or precise manipulative judgment,and so represents a preferred and most economical design of the machine.It is obvious, of course, to those skilled in the .art that thesemovements may be effected pneumatically, electrically, or by othermeans. Such means are conventional and of course are included within thebroad scope of the present invention. In a more specific modificationthe preferred manual operation is claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for simultaneously applying caps to a plurality ofhypodermic syringes comprising in combination,

(a) a framework adapted to receive a container with a plurality ofsyringes, needle end up;

(b) means for clamping the individual syringes in predetermined parallelalignment;

(c) a member mounted in said framework just above the needle ends when acontainer with syringes has been inserted, said member having aplurality of guiding channels each aligned with and parallel to a needleand adapted to receive soft needle caps, open end down, whereby whencaps are received by the channels they move by gravity onto the needlesin aligned orientation;

((1) a bar having a plurality of rods of size fitting the channels, saidbar being slideably mounted in a tiltable framework, which framework isadapted to be swung over the member provided with the channel;

(e) means for causing the bar with the rods to move up and down in theposition swung over the member with channels, said means including stopspositioned so that when the bar is moved down the rods stop just abovethe ends of the needles.

2. A device according to claim 1 in which the member provided withchannels is provided with funnel shaped channels with the wide mouthsup.

3. A device according to claim 2 in which the locking and aligningmember and the tiltable framework carrying the bar provided with rodsare manually movable to their predetermined positions.

4. A device according to claim 3 in which the means for moving the barcontaining the rods up and down is a pneumatic means.

5. A device according to claim 1 in which the means for moving the barcontaining the rods up and down is a pneumatic means.

6. A device according to claim 2 in which the means for moving the barcontaining the rods up and down is a pneumatic means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,024,523 3/ 1962 Donaldson 292083,299,502 1/ 1967 Wanesky 29-208 3,336,654 8/1967 Ryan 29-235 ROBERT C.RIORDON, Primary Examiner.

J. C. PETERS, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

